Weekly Planning: Big Plans Require Small Steps

Most everyone has heard the old saying, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." For restaurant owners, planning can sometimes be a tricky proposition. There is the long-term plan, the annual plan, management plan, marketing plan and so on. And after we complete a reasonable plan, our real challenge becomes executing it successfully.

A client of mine, who has been in the restaurant business for 30 years, once told me that the best five-year plan is an annual plan done five years in a row. Although that may sound funny, it is quite true. I would add that the best annual plan is divided into 12 monthly plans, and the best monthly plan is divided into weekly plans with specific assignments. Long-distance runners know that completing a marathon is done one stride at a time. Much like a marathon, carrying out your restaurant's annual plan is done one week at a time.

In this article we take a look at how taking small steps can equal large successes.

Why Bother With Weekly Planning?

Is it enough to create annual sales and profit goals, and then hand them off to your managers? We have found that they alone are not sufficient for a management team to get its arms around, understand, and effectively carry out. That is much like a football coach sending his quarterback onto the field with orders to score but without a playbook. You need to determine the regular, incremental tasks that support the larger goals.